I blinked a few times, hoping to erase the six figures and replace them with new ones, with strangers. But no, they were still standing there. I couldn't even pretend that they were too far away to see properly, because even in the murky shadows of the room, their features stood out shockingly: Alice's spiky hair, Emmett's muscular figure…at least their eyes were still the familiar topaz shade I loved….but still.
How could they? The Volturi? They were afraid of the Volturi, and now all of a sudden they've joined them? It just didn't make any sense, but I couldn't think up any explainable reasons as to why they were here. My only hope of getting out, what with Edward trapped, was the rest of the Cullen's, and now they were going to make it even harder to make it out of here alive.
"Shocked?" asked Aro, smirking quietly. "They make up a very important part of our guard, and it's all thanks to you Bella. If it wasn't for your little slip up, then we would be lacking certain talents."
I glared spitefully, at Aro, and at the Cullen's. Traitors, betrayers… They gave up too easily, they need to fight to win…
"Alice?" Aro continued, turning to face her. "Is our plan going to work?" I watched in shock as Alice's eyes glazed over, the way they always did when she had a vision.
"Yes," she said. "It will work."
Her voice shocked me even more. It was Alice's voice, but it wasn't Alice. All the fun, bubbly aspects that made up her character had vanished. It was now emotionless, cold, and plain, like an empty shell, missing the soul inside. God, had the Volturi developed some sort of soul-sucking powers? Man this was out of control…
"Very Good." Aro paused for a second, turning to face me with terrifying eyes. They bore into mine, scarring my brain and burning into my mind. Shuddering, I took a brief step backwards, but couldn't. Demetri was obviously expecting sudden movements.
"Now. You found out about our secret a couple of years ago. Since then, you promised us twice that you would be transformed, become one of us. It seems you have lied to us Miss. Swan. You are as human now as you ever will be. And then, you blurt out the secret to awaiting human ears. I have no reason to trust you Bella, you have betrayed our society, and lied to the Volturi."
I shuddered, each harsh word that escaped his lips seemed to attach itself to me, and although I knew he was trying to mess with my emotions, it still hurt. Hearing again that I had spilled the secret of the vampires made the guilt come rushing back. I felt sick.
"The most obvious answer was to kill you, and that was our plan. But Jane told me that you had a dream…a prediction? Somehow you knew what was coming, and I find that very interesting. We have a new option now, and I believe that this is what you wanted all along? We're going to use you instead…"
I gasped, the air catching in my throat. They were going to change me. Right now. Did they really believe that I would have a power? It was just a dream! A stupid, insignificant, dream! And they were going to change me- with the hope that it might turn out to be something good? What if it wasn't? They could kill me, or just make me work with them for eternity. That, was worse than death. And he thought I wanted it. Sure, I wanted it. But not from Aro, not from anyone evil. I wanted Edward to change me…
"It'll be even better today... It's a new moon..." he continued, though I was hardly listening.
I thought of all my options in the seconds that I had. I could stay, be transformed, and be forced to serve under the Volturi for the rest of eternity. I'd be evil, and would feast off human blood. Or I could run, and hope that either I made it out alive, or I died trying. Neither of them sounded good, because there was no hope in hell that I could run more than a few metres without being caught. This would be the end. No more Charlie, Renee, Jacob…and I might never see Edward again.
"Isabella Swan. This is it. Welcome to our world."
I was stupid. I ran. Faster than I'd ever ran before, and I hardly tripped. But I could only glorify my new found speed for a second or two. Demetri grabbed my arm, and pulled it tightly, dragging me back towards Aro and the rest of the guard. Before releasing me, he squeezed my arm with so much force that I heard a snap. Broken. The pain hit me suddenly, but I didn't scream, nor even wince. I was too scared to even notice the pain.
I felt arms pin me down onto the floor, and I flicked my eyes up to see the Cullen's glaring at me. How did so much love disintegrate so quickly? They held me down so firmly that I couldn't move. All parts of my body were locked into place. Even Carlisle, who had never killed a human, was part of this. His face was usually full of love, care, compassion, but not now. It was twisted up, cold hard, and not one part of him seemed to show resentment of any kind.
Could he want to be like this- or had the Volturi managed to trick all of them, hypnotise them maybe? My mind flicked back to the massacre that had happened only minutes beforehand. The Cullen's weren't part of that- were they? I didn't think so, or their eyes would be a brilliant red like the other members. At least they'd stuck to their beliefs.
It was hard to believe that so many terrible, terrible thins had happened during these last few days. But now I was facing the worst danger out of them all, just inches away from six vampires, with the evil vampire ruler about to attack me.
I had no time to spare, he was coming for me, and I had no way of escaping. And Edward was trapped, I might never see him again, or be forced to hurt him... Never.
Aro sauntered towards me, a look of pure evil on his face. He bent down to lean over me, and the Cullens moved back, but didn't restrain the iron grip on my arms and legs.
"You ready Bella?" asked Aro with a smirk, and bent down to bite my now exposed neck.
And then I was flying, backwards, away from the room. And I knew that I was dead.
The flying hadn't stopped, but now I was hearing things. Shouts, footsteps, voices. I had to be dead. I just had to be. Either that, or passed out from the pain of the bite. I assumed it was the later, because if I was dead, Edward would be with me, and from what I could see, I was alone.
But then I realised, that the pain was there, I just hadn't noticed. Fire was burning, starting from my neck and spreading rapidly throughout my body. The pain was worse than last time, totally excruciating, but the constant rush of air as I flew comforted me a little, but it was still there. Now I had a brief idea of what was happening, I screamed aloud.
I was definitely not dead, but I wished that I was.
"She's coming around..." muttered a voice, centimetres from my ear. I knew the voice, a male one, but at the moment, I couldn't quite pinpoint who it was.
"Don't worry," said another voice, female this time. "We've covered our tracks, they won't find our trail for a few more days, and by then we'll be even harder to find."
Sickness from the flight was starting to kick in, and I tried to groan, but I couldn't. Someone's hand had clamped over my mouth, to stop the screaming. The pain was growing worse, and I just wished that the Volturi had killed me. It would have been so much better...
The flying was stopping, and now that we had slowed enough for me to see, I realised I wasn't flying, I was being carried, but my legs were stretched out in front on me, sinking from the loss of speed. They hit the floor as we finally slowed down to a stop.
Before I had time to turn to notice my rescuers, they appeared in front of me. It was the Cullen's all of them there, apart from Edward... Carlisle was checking me, the bite mark, and examining my broken arm, though I couldn't even feel that, the burning was overpowering it by far.
"Bella?" he asked, in a sweet voice, once again caring and kind. "Can you hear me- are you all right?"
I nodded briefly, and just about managed to choke out some words. "Kill me Carlisle, please kill me."
He didn't look too concerned at my plea, it was normal behaviour anyway for the transformation. "Bella, you have to make a choice. Do you want to be changed like this- in the hands of the Volturi?"
I was disgusted. If I was going to live forever, I wouldn't want to have the knowledge that someone like Aro changed me. I wouldn't be able to deal with it. Promptly, I shook my head and made a face.
"Then you know what happens next."
I did, and as Carlisle bent down to suck out the venom, Jasper covered my mouth again and sent out waves of calm. It didn't really work. I still screamed, and panicked as the pain got worse, fidgeting violently, but soon it was gone. Well- almost gone.
This time, a warm tingle remained in my body, and although the pain had stopped, I was very aware that there was something happening. Carlisle stepped backwards, a smile on his face.
"Your all clean Bella, we made it just in time," he said, while the others nodded their heads in agreement. But I was still glaring at them.
"Why were you in the Volturi?" I asked coldly, still needing an explanation.
"Because," Alice chipped in, "They caught us, and said we could either die or join them."
"Yea, but we were all prepared to fight them until..." Emmett added until Alice cut him off with a swift glance.
"Until I came up with a plan, and I saw that it would work. And it did. So we joined them, stayed for about a few hours, and then rescued you. Pretty good plan- huh?"
She beamed back at me, assuming that all confusion had been cleared up. It hadn't.
"But what about the people- those tourists? What did you do when the Volturi had a massive...lunch." I asked quietly, afraid to cause offence.
"We made it look like we were feeding, when we weren't."
"Apart from somebody almost blew our cover..." muttered Emmett, firing a quick glare at Jasper. I knew Jasper had trouble around human blood, so I could imagine what he went through.
Esme smiled at me, while Carlisle went back to check my broken arm. "Is everything cleared up now, honey?"
That stunned me. Der. Of course it wasn't. Sure, I knew why they pretended to be in the Volturi, but they'd missed out one important part. Because one of their family, the most important one, was missing.
"But what about Edward??"
They stared blankly at me, their sad eyes all twitching slightly, and everything went silent. Alice's lip was quivering, and it looked like no one was brave enough to speak.
"Well?" I demanded, wondering what in the world was stopping them from answering such a simple question.
It was Rosalie who stepped forward, and she gingerly placed her hand on my shoulder, and held my hand with her other. She inhaled a deep breath, and looked me solemnly in the eyes.
"Bella, sweetheart. Edward's dead."